TASHKENT. Feb 16 (Interfax) - Uzbek customs officers have seized a truck at the Oybek crossing on the border with Tajikistan after finding almost 230 kg of heroin inside the vehicle.
"A truck on its way to Russia with 21.5 tonnes of cotton fibers was seized at the Oybek border crossing point. When the vehicle was passing through a customs scanner, a cache was found in one of the cabin's compartments, which contained about 230 kg of narcotics," the press service for the State Customs Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan said in a statement on Tuesday.
The cache in the front part of the trailer contained 232 packs of drugs, each weighing about one kilogram. The drugs were placed in juice cartons greased with fat in order to mask the pungent specific smell, it said.
A laboratory study confirmed that the seized substance is heroin, its net weight being 229.7 kg. The average price of this quantity of narcotics in Europe would be $12 to $14 million.
Customs has opened a criminal case. An investigation is underway, it said.
Uzbek Customs and other law enforcement agencies seized more than 531 kg of illegal drugs in 2021, it said
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